A dilapidated fence surrounding a Bay Ridge rail yard will be replaced, patching up holes that turned the site into a homeless encampment and safeguarding a jet fuel pipeline that neighbors fear could be a terror target.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it would installing tamper proof fencing at the rail yard, which runs under the Gowanus Expressway between 64th and 66th streets.
Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams also promised to assign additional MTA cops and Homeless Outreach Program workers to patrol the site, where a homeless man died in March.
The improved fencing will also protect the Buckeye Pipeline, a jet fuel line which runs from Linden, N.J., to John F. Kennedy Airport.
Ridgites and elected officials celebrated the decision — which they say has been a long time coming.
“This plan to insure the safety of all of us living near the Buckeye Pipline comes as a relief for all who have worried for so long that the pipeline is vulnerable and can be used to inflict harm on our community,” said state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge).
The issue is so important locally that even embattled Rep. Vito Fossella (R–Bay Ridge) — who rallied neighborhood outrage about the faulty fencing last year — put out a press release lauding the MTA.
This from the man who has been in hiding since his May 1 drunk-driving arrest and subsequent admission that he had fathered a child with his mistress.
